Melissa Rycroft: Pregnancy Is “Such An Exciting Time”

Melissa Rycroft found love unexpectedly last year when she rekindled a romance with former flame Tye Strickland after being publicly dumped by her Bachelor star fiancé, Jason Mesnick.

After announcing her upcoming nuptials on Twitter, the couple were married on December 12, 2009 in Mexico.

The 27-year-old reality star, whose first child with her new husband is due early next year, recently opened up to Parade about love, pregnancy and life in the spotlight.

On getting over the shock of an unplanned pregnancy: “It didn’t take long. Just because something is a surprise does not mean that it’s not good and once we got over the initial shocks, which were the ‘Oh my gosh. Are we ready for this? Are we gonna be good parents? How are we gonna do this with both of our careers?’ which I think are fears that every first time parents have regardless of if you were planning it or not planning it. But it quickly faded from those fears to just excitement and what a blessing that this was handed to us.”

On going through her pregnancy in the spotlight: “It’s the best of both worlds. We can go through it at home and then come out and tell people what we’re going through. It’s such an exciting time, and we were very excited to announce it and excited to find out all the little things of what it looks like, is it going to be a boy or a girl, what we’re going to do with the nursery and all those big life changing events. I’m sure that we will share our journey just because we’re excited, but I don’t know how much of it that we’ll share.”

On her advice for those still looking for love: “I’ve learned you can’t force it. I was one of those girls who just really wanted love and I wanted to be loved. You look for it sometimes in different places because you want it so bad and ultimately you just have to be patient and you have to wait. Unfortunately, that’s the hardest thing in the world when you are someone who just wants [love] because you want it now, you don’t want to wait. But it’s ultimately the best thing because, funny as it is, timing will always work out and what’s meant to be will be.”